On April 2, 2003, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit directed the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to publish a proposed hexavalent chromium rule no later than October 4, 2004 and a final standard no later than January 18, 2006. The Court issued the ruling based on a recommendation from a court-appointed mediator trying to resolve a suit from Public Citizen Health Research Group seeking to require OSHA to promulgate a new standard on chromium. [ChemAlliance Environmental News]

29 - 7:19:55 PM    comment []   - See Also:  chromium - News-Events - OSHA    ()  

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revised two rules contributing to its efforts to reduce national emissions of toxic air pollutants. The first action amends a rule known as the "General Provisions" which establishes a common set of requirements for developing rules or standards to regulate emissions of toxic air pollution. In the second action, EPA is amending its rule known as the "Section 112(j) or MACT Hammer rule." This rule currently affects over 40 categories of industry for which EPA has yet to issue national air toxics emissions standards. The 1990 Clean Air Act charged EPA with a very large task – in just 10 years the Agency was to issue regulations that would reduce air toxic emissions from over 170 categories of industries. To date, the EPA has issued rules to control emissions of air toxics from 112 of the 154 categories of industries currently listed for control. Sixteen of the original categories have been delisted or are included within other categories. The EPA is committed to completing the remaining emissions standards by the deadlines agreed to in a March 2003 settlement agreement with the Sierra Club – all will be completed by June 14, 2005. These amendments include a backstop to insure that emissions reductions will occur by requiring states to set emission limits on a facility-by-facility basis should EPA not be able to finalize the remaining air toxics standards as agreed. [ChemAlliance Environmental News]

28 - 7:18:30 PM    comment []   - See Also:  Clean_Air_Act - News-Events - regulatory    ()  

On May 7, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) in the Federal Register to solicit public comment about criteria and standards the EPA would use in deciding the extent to which it will rely on certain kinds of human research to support its actions to protect public health and the environment. This notice begins a process to establish rigorous scientific and ethical standards that the EPA would apply in its analysis of various types of research involving people exposed to toxicants to identify or quantify their effects. The EPA will particularly focus on "third-party intentional dosing human studies," but recognizes that standards applicable to these studies may also be applicable to other types of studies. "Third party studies" refers to research not conducted or supported by the EPA or other federal agencies, and therefore not governed by the Common Rule to ensure that human test subjects have adequate protections. The EPA is seeking public comments on how to determine the extent to which it will consider or rely on results from particular types of studies involving human subjects, and how the EPA might be able to establish robust standards for the protection of human subjects, in preparation for developing a rule or policy on this issue. The EPA's focus in developing a future policy or rule must be protection of the welfare of human research subjects and adherence to the most rigorous ethical and scientific standards. Along with public comments,the EPA will also carefully consider advice expected later this year from the National Academy of Sciences. This process will allow EPA to review its approach to human subjects research and develop a rule or policy in a transparent and participatory manner. Comments on this ANPR will be accepted for 90 days. [ChemAlliance Environmental News]

27 - 7:17:07 PM    comment []   - See Also:  News-Events - toxicology    ()